Modern merchandising practices rely ever more heavily on unattended merchandise displays and customer self service. Such practices demand efficient use of floor and aisle space which are typically at a premium. Merchandise displays must be attractively and strategically placed and must be readily adaptable for changes in positioning and merchandise capacity. Since the typical clerk in a food market or general department store may be unskilled in the use of tools and erection of support structures, display stands which require tools and connectors for complex assembly or disassembly operations are of limited value and application. Similarly, the need for frequent display changes and fresh designs and motifs militates against display stands that are expensive and substantially permanent in nature.
There thus exists a need for a display stand structure that is simple to assemble and disassemble and requires no tools or connectors for those operations. The display stand should be relatively inexpensive and yet be stable and easily adaptable for varying capacities of merchandise display.